Unionists cannot stay in Stormont with the Northern Ireland Protocol intact, says Peter Robinson

The former DUP leader and first minister says that “the assembly places unionist ministers as part of the apparatus of this destructive (Northern Ireland) protocol if they fulfil what is legally required of them”.

Writing in today’s News Letter (see link below), Mr Robinson says that “the protocol has continued to seep into Northern Ireland’s body politic while radically upsetting our economic well-being”.

He writes that “unless rock solid commitments of how the protocol is to be dealt with exist the leadership of unionism cannot feast at the table set to celebrate their destruction”.

He adds: “Remaining in the executive with this protocol intact is untenable.”

Mr Robinson in his column says that “it has been a year dominated here by the two Ps — the pandemic and the protocol”.

He writes: “Only a few feckless social media nutters think that Covid is not a significant problem.”

But Mr Robinson adds that he still believes in a point he made in an earlier News Letter column, when he “proffered the view that the pandemic would be with us for a very long time, and we would have to work out how we live with it”.

Peter Robinson: The noxious poison of the two Ps, pandemic and protocol, has dominated 2021

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